Category Archives: Training

End of Season
A reminder about where we stand on training, playing and socials as we head into the final month of the 15s season.

Training
We have Coram’s Fields booked until the last 1st XV game of the season. The final training here will be on Wednesday 20th April.
Corams Field, Farringdon, EC1R 0EGLocation for trainingPitches
Regent’s Park only mark rugby pitches until Easter Weekend each season, regardless of how early/late it might fall. We have all now played our last home game in the park. Home games from this point will be played elsewhere.

Remaining games2nd April 2016
This is the final day of league games for the 2s & 4s. The 3s have their cup semi this day while the 1s are also on the road in the league. We expect to field the Bulls, possibly for the final time this season. Business as usual.

9th April 2016
The 3s have their MMT League Play Off Semi, the 2s will be in their cup Quarter Finals and the 4s in their plate QFs.

16th April 2016
in previous years this would be the final weekend of 15s and we would have just a couple of sides out. This year we are expecting to fulfil the below games, all competitive and relevant to the success of the season:
1st XV – home to Old Actonians (will be played elsewhere)
2nd XV – HMMT Cup Semi
3rd XV – MMT Cup Final
4th XV – HMMT Plate Semi

23rd April 2016
Finals Day. If results go the right way, the 1s & 3s will be playing to win their leagues and the 2s & 4s will be in knockout finals:
1st XV – away to London Nigerian
2nd XV – HMMT Cup Final
3rd XV – MMT League Final
4th XV – HMMT Plate Final

We will not arrange additional games, but we will set up socials around watching & supporting the teams playing for trophies & titles.
The end of season wrap party will be taking place at the White Mustache followed by our infamous Silly Sunday!

30th April 2016
Obviously the major rugby on this weekend will be taking place in Greece but we will also be entering a side into the Middlesex 7s at Richmond FC.
This is on the Sunday of the Bank Holiday.

We will also look at other 7s competitions as well as entering a side into Regent’s Park Touch Competitions once more.

Last weekend saw the second and final club day of the preseason with four teams taking to the field in Dulwich against Old Alleynians. Belsize fielded 79 players in an afternoon that saw another clean sweep for the central Londoners. The 1st XV ran out 38 – 14 victors, the 2nds 104 – 5, the thirds 41 – 17 and the fourths completed the rout 31- 22.
The Belsize attacking flair was evident across the board as free flowing rugby lead to the tries rained in from all areas.

Sterner challenges await next week as the 1s(away) and 2s(home) begin their league campaigns against Grasshoppers, the 3s(home) have friendly against Old Actonians 2s, the 4s(home) play British Airways before they make their league debut the following week and the 5s are due to make their seasonal debut.

We are now taking availability for games next Saturday. Given the league sides have restricted squad sizes, we will be ready to find a 5th team game a week early if numbers dictate.

If you can’t access it because of firewalls, etc then send in an email to this address with something like the following in the subject line, by Wednesday 9am:

Zach Webb/Available/Hooker or Prop/No Car/07706 123456

i.e. Your name, your availability, your position, phone number and whether or not you’ve a car.

Also, a few of you are still only confirming availability with coaches or captains, given the need for myself & Mark O’Brien to have quick visibility on numbers to gauge the amount of games we need, this has to stop ASAP.

We have a fantastic club day lined up for this Saturday, acting as the culmination of the past two months of hard pre-season training.

We have three matches scheduled and despite many players still being away on holidays, we have almost 80 players to pick from. Thus, the aim is to give everyone a run, easing you back into full-contact rugby, and for coaches to have a look at all players.

We are now entering August and our first competitive matches are in this month. So, we have one month to be ready.

Training takes place on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Regents Park. Many players are attending only one session a week. Many regulars from last season have not made an appearance at all. This is disappointing.

We have a large number of new players who need welcoming, who need to train alongside established players in order to gauge the standard of the club, and who need to be brought up to speed with club playing culture and structure. By staying away, you are not helping your own cause, nor the club cause.

We have a pool of talented coaches who are trying to structure sessions to accommodate numbers, raise standards, and still have a laugh. There are minor, but important developments to the playing structure this season; we cannot begin to train this until everyone is present.

For everyone who is training regularly, you can already look back on a few weeks of dustbowl rugby, Michael’s absolute killer first session, Primrose Hill, first contact and Dav’s wicked switch from the wing on Thursday evening. Leapfrog will never be the same and having 50 guys roll around on the floor wrestling nearly drew a crowd.

Pre-season is important for your fitness and for your rugby skill level. It’s a physical and emotional investment in the bank for when the weather’s cold and you wonder why you do it. But, most of all, it sets our stall out for the kind of club we want to be in 2014/15.